Adele on tour

LONDON • Adele, whose latest album 25 has smashed sales records in its first week of release, announced on Thursday she would begin a 15-week concert tour of Britain, Ireland and continental Europe in February.

Fans applauded the tour, her first in four years, on Twitter while media sites noted that the 27-year- old singer appeared to have overcome her self-professed fear of performing before large crowds.

Adele has previously spoken of how she suffers from stage fright, while some media reports had suggested she would not tour for her latest album as she does not like leaving her three-year- old son Angelo.

But, announcing the tour in a video on her website, she says, standing in front of a map of Europe and the British Isles: "Hello it's me. I have been bluffing this whole time and I'm so relieved to finally tell you I am of course coming on tour and I can't wait to see all of you there."

The tour will open on Feb 29 at the SSE Arena in Belfast and will end at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium, a notice sent to subscribers to her website said.

Other concerts will be held elsewhere in Britain and in Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and France, the notice said.

Tickets for the British shows go on sale on Tuesday and on Wednesday for the rest of Europe. Adele's last tour in 2011 was cut short when she needed surgery on her vocal cords.

Fans were jubilant, with one tweet saying: "Omg. Next year Adele is gonna sing in Verona on 28-29 May! Can you imagine all the Arena singing #HELLO?! Italia's waiting for the queen!"

Adele broke the single-week American album sales record in just four days with 25, Nielsen Music said on Tuesday, with sales at 2,430,000 since its release last Friday.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 28, 2015, with the headline Adele on tour. Subscribe